WHAT ITS ABOUT: We begin as we often do in this story, with some pesky scientists and their new fangled toy, nuclear explosions, lighting up the South Pacific like it’s New Year’s Night. Enjoying the view are a family of marine iguanas, chillin’ on the local sand dunes, wondering just why the heck the sky suddenly went orange with choking smoke and face-melting fire. Skip ahead to the present day of 1998, and it seems at least a couple of those cute little lizards made it out alive and had themselves some offspring with a just a slight tweak in the family genes of course, you know, the kind that accelerates growth a wee bit … like a hundred times.
Now, a ginormous monster has come to the surface and made its way to New York City because, duh, South Pacific. New York. They’re like, right next to each other. Geography rules! (Okay, so we learn it traveled during the ‘rainy season’ and found the Big Apple … because that makes more sense). Either way, it ain’t happy and starts smashing up the place like it’s a monster in a Japanese creature feature … oh wait.
Good news for people, on the case is Nick Tatopoulos (Matthew Broderick), a scientist for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission yanked off his Chernobyl worm study to figure out why this thing is alive and what’s its beef with the New York skyline. Joining him are his his ex-girlfriend, Audrey Timmonds (Maria Pitillo), a hungry news reporter, and Philippe Roaché (Jean Reno), a French insurance agent (right!), with a few secrets of his own. Can they save the city? Do you really care?
REVIEW: Sure, this is a bad movie. We all know that. Even nearly twenty years on, it’s still not that much fun, despite the efforts the filmmakers went to in trying to make it so. The whole thing has a cheesy tongue-in-cheek feel to it that is much too forced, the humor never as smart as it thinks it is and the drama never anything we care about. Characters are mostly superficial and threadbare, cardboard cutouts of recycled stereotypes that are purposefully obvious but empty of any zing. How could they mess this up?
Visually, at the time, it had some legs to stand on (big thick lizardly ones) but most of its muddy and dark, the scenes in the city with Godzilla wrecking the place greatly disappointing, especially now with CGI effects spoiling us all rotten for such things. Either way, Godzilla doesn’t look anything like Godzilla, the filmmakers trying hard to cash in on the Jurassic Park buzz of the time (even the trailers took shots at our pal the T-Rex). Good for a dose of nostalgia if you were around at the time, Godzilla doesn’t hold a candle to the recent reboot in 2014, which itself had issues, and will surely be forever ranked as one of the worst ideas in Hollywood. And yet, there is a cool moment …
THAT MOMENT: Just like in that 2014 film, the best part of the show (in fact any in this genre) is when the monster makes its first appearance. And so it is here as well. Or, technically, it’s third-ish appearance. Or fourth. Hard to tell. The whole first thirty minutes of this thing is just teases of the big guy making like he’s shy.
Anyway, after the Army is on the chase and Tatopoulos (named after that actual production designer who came up with the new look for Godzilla, Patrick Tatopoulos) is on board – they seeing all sorts of razzmatazz destruction from the as yet unseen monster – we cut to a New York City harbor in the pouring rain. There, fishermen are unloading their catches for sale, and down on the docks shambles Fisherman Joe (played by veteran TV and film character actor Ralph Manza), not giving two hoots about the deluge soping the city in torrential showers. The man wants a fish. While he’s heckled by a couple of old timer homeless guys taking shelter nearby, Joe gleefully shimmies his way to the end of the dock and casts out his line, hoping for a bite. And oh boy, does he get one.
WHY IT MATTERS: Remember Jaws? The one about the great white shark and the need for a bigger boat. ‘Course you do. Well there’s a scene in that movie where a couple of old pals pitch a roast on a meat hook out into the water off the end of a pier, hoping to snag them a shark. Good plan, right? Not really. It doesn’t end well, at least for the dock, and is surely partially homaged in this similar bit in Godzilla. Manza is just perfect as the wobbly old fella, who feels like he’s lived the better part of the century right on this dock, not just his livelihood but his reason for living whatever he can reel in off the end of his fishing pole.
Obviously, he hooks Godzilla, but the movie still isn’t done toying with our expectations, refusing to show us the monster until we’re at a fever pitch, which was also reason for some of the success of Steven Spielberg‘s Jaws. What’s very cool about this scene is actually the cinematography of all things, the way the emergence of Godzilla is filmed, his massive frame just bulging a bit of the water as it rushes forward. Then the force of the waves smashing into the wooden dock, planks firing up and away like a string of explosions with poor little Joe just one step in front. It’s funny and terrifying. But mostly funny.
So there you have it. A short sequence that is easily the most creative in the entire film, the movie just a slew of clichés and has-beens that do little to inspire any imagination. For just this shot alone though, the movie deserves a little credit, understanding well the value of the slow reveal and holding on as long as possible in keeping the beast a mystery. It’s better than both boat scenes run just prior to it. In fact, it’s so good, one almost thinks that maybe there’s something about this Godzilla that could make it great, but alas, that’s soon abandoned for bad writing and cheap laughs. Not too mention all to generic monster mayhem. But, thank goodness for Fisherman Joe and the terrific if all too brief work of Mr. Manza, who straight up steals the show. It’s a great movie moment.